Organizations may need to manage multiple statuses such as the status of their counterparts in inter-organizational relationships. However, it is less clear how organizations cope with these multiple statuses when affiliating with new and, particularly, low-status actors or practices. We explain how organizations uphold their multiple statuses when they need to embrace a low-status practice. The findings highlight the roles of status incongruity and status anxiety in organizational responses to address the possible status leakage. We contribute to the literature on status by developing a process model of status maintenance, and showing how status incongruity and anxiety influence organizational responses to multiple demands in institutionally complex environments.